TY - JOUR
T1 - Institutional responsibilities
T2 - providing placement for international students
AU - Ross, Bella
AU - Ta, Binh
AU - Oliaro, Louise
PY - 2019/12/20
Y1 - 2019/12/20
N2 - Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the number of international students studying health professional degrees such as social work in Australia and internationally. Research indicates that placement educators perceive that extra time and effort is required to support international students on placement due to, for example, language barriers and cultural and educational differences. This paper reports on findings from a nationwide study investigating the experiences and support needs of placement educators who supervise international social work students. The data consists of 15 in-depth interviews and 66 survey responses from placement educators across Australia. Findings reveal that placement educators feel pressure from education providers to supervise international students, yet they also feel they lack support from the education provider to do so adequately. Placement educators cite a need to increase contact and coordination between agencies and education providers, including clarity around the education providers’ expectations of their supervision. Placement educators want closer working relationships between agencies and education providers to ensure rewarding and enriching experiences for both students and placement educators. Such findings suggest that increased institutional support for, and collaboration with, placement educators is required to sustainably maintain quality placements for international students.
AB - Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the number of international students studying health professional degrees such as social work in Australia and internationally. Research indicates that placement educators perceive that extra time and effort is required to support international students on placement due to, for example, language barriers and cultural and educational differences. This paper reports on findings from a nationwide study investigating the experiences and support needs of placement educators who supervise international social work students. The data consists of 15 in-depth interviews and 66 survey responses from placement educators across Australia. Findings reveal that placement educators feel pressure from education providers to supervise international students, yet they also feel they lack support from the education provider to do so adequately. Placement educators cite a need to increase contact and coordination between agencies and education providers, including clarity around the education providers’ expectations of their supervision. Placement educators want closer working relationships between agencies and education providers to ensure rewarding and enriching experiences for both students and placement educators. Such findings suggest that increased institutional support for, and collaboration with, placement educators is required to sustainably maintain quality placements for international students.
KW - clinical placements
KW - field education
KW - international students
KW - placement education
KW - placement supervision
KW - Social work education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076887361&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/02615479.2019.1703931
DO - 10.1080/02615479.2019.1703931
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85076887361
JO - Social Work Education
JF - Social Work Education
SN - 0261-5479
ER -